Monday 20 June 2011 14.33 EDT
First published on Monday 20 June 2011 14.33 EDT

It is a rare grand old English institution that finds itself mourning the absence – as opposed to the presence – of a few strident American accents. But this is Wimbledon: historically the stage for the most affectionate of transatlantic sporting love affairs, one that over the years has proved both mutually flattering (we've got the championship; you bring the champions) and emotionally resonant.

On a fevered opening Monday, with bars thickly peopled and the brass band parping triumphantly, there was still time to ponder the one missing ingredient from the All England Club mix. Where have the great Americans gone? The decline in American tennis has been widely bemoaned by those with an interest in its fortunes but it is also felt keenly in SW19.

On Monday America's two leading men, Andy Roddick (seeded 8) and Mardy Fish (10), were due to be in action: neither is fancied to threaten the European hegemony. In the women's draw the Williams sisters may yet stage another grand slam smash and grab but beyond them you are down to Bethanie Matteck-Sands, the No30 seed. It is a sweeping decline, albeit one that is not without precedent. There have always been lulls in a lineage of triumph that has seen American men win a quarter of all Wimbledon singles titles and American women an amazing 46%. The difference now is a sense of dwindling away, a lack of thrust in the next generation.

America's tournament started with a midday meeting of two men – Alexander Bogomolov Jr and Donald Young – who have defeated Andy Murray in the last six months. Both have hovered around the top 100, although watching Bogomolov get the best of four uneven sets it was tempting to see those results as decisive proof of the depth of Murray's doldrums at the time.

At least Court 17 seemed a poignant location for a display of American grass-court tennis 2011 vintage, lodged in the shadows of Centre and No1 court, its seating so shallow passersby lean in at the edges like neighbours craning across a garden hedge. At one stage Bogomolov lost his grip on his racket and sent it hurtling over the midget-level rear awning and clattering on to the Tarmac walkway outside, narrowly missing a pedestrian.

There were no stars and stripes flags here, not even a celebratory whoop or yowl or "Yoo! Ess! Ay!" as the backwards-capped Bogomolov broke in the second set to shift the momentum of the match. Young, a lovely mover possessed of an elegant backhand slice, is seen as a little fragile and so it proved in the face of the more aggressive Bogomolov. "Booger – we're here for you!" intoned an English voice at one point, and with his yelled "Come on!" and his clumping backhand Bogomolov – who was born in Moscow and is the son of a Soviet tennis coach – did come close at times to conjuring an imprint of that familiar flushed and titillated Wimbledon-love for the explosive American.

In the men's game this relationship reached a peak in the early 1980s, the golden run of four successive titles for John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, a passionate, occasionally ragged rivalry that was followed by the steamrollering domination of the 1990s, when Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras won eight titles out of nine. The years since have brought three losing finals for Roddick as men's tennis has spun on its axis to face Europe, albeit continued female domination has brought nine titles out of 11 in the Williams era.

Why America should be facing a lull is unclear. The lack of depth in the women's game is attributed by some to the application of Title IX, a law that insists on equal opportunity in college scholarships, and has opened up a far greater number of sporting avenues for young women. In the men it is simply assumed to be a cyclical thing. One wag in the US press corps blamed a lack of manipulative and over-controlling parents coming through the system. Others bemoaned the general absence of bitter rivalries at the top of the game, a lack of a galvanising bad guy ("Americans don't get Nadal. He's too nice") which has fuelled a troubling drop-off in interest.

As Fish – entirely unMcEnroe-ish despite his red hair and headband – clinched a disciplined and gentlemanly 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory over Marcel Granollers on Court 12 there were a few collegiate whoops and a lone cry of "Yo Mardy!". Fish, Roddick and the Williamses remain but there is still a faint sense that Wimbledon is missing its Americans already.